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When the nun Chiyono one moonlit night was carrying water in an old pail bound with bamboo. The bamboo broke and the bottom fell out of the pail, and at that moment Chiyono encounters freedom in realization, letting go the struggle. In commemoration she wrote a poem:

`In this way and that I tried to save the old pail,

Since the bamboo strip was weakening and about to break

Until at last the bottom fell out.

No more water in the pail!

No more moon in the water!'

In the Denkoroku, Keizan describes Dogen's "Dropping Body-Mind" this way ...

Once you reach this realm, you become like a bottomless bucket, like a lacquer bowl with a hole punched in it. No matter how much leaks out, it is never empty; no matter how much is put into it, it is never full. Arriving here is called "the bottom falling out of the bucket". But if you think that there is a hair of enlightenment or acquisition here, it is not the Way.

This is wonderful! When I read the last line I laughed out loud and my family thinks I'm losing it. I really needed that.
Gassho, Jakudo.

Gassho, Shawn Jakudo Hinton
It all begins when we say, “I”. Everything that follows is illusion.
"Even to speak the word Buddha is dragging in the mud soaking wet; Even to say the word Zen is a total embarrassment."
寂道

When the nun Chiyono one moonlit night was carrying water in an old pail bound with bamboo. The bamboo broke and the bottom fell out of the pail, and at that moment Chiyono encounters freedom in realization, letting go the struggle. In commemoration she wrote a poem:

In the Denkoroku, Keizan describes Dogen's "Dropping Body-Mind" this way ...